Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood announce collaborative art exhibition

Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood have announced a new exhibition of artwork, The Crow Flies Part One. The show at London's Tin Man Art gallery will feature paintings Yorke and Donwood created together between 2021 and 2023.

The project began as cover artwork for the Smile's 2022 debut album A Light For Attracting Attention. The exhibition's name is also derived from Ted Hughes’ 1970 poem, Crow, which is where The Smile got their name from.

.@stanleydonwood and I have made some new paintings together. 'The Crow Flies: Part One' opens in South Kensington, London on 6th September. Visit https://t.co/ZShIjMTQNp for details pic.twitter.com/VICPSAP5MF

— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) August 2, 2023

In addition to Hughes’ poem, The Crow Flies Part One draws inspiration from the Bodleian Libraries’ collection of Islamic pirate maps and 1960s US military topographic charts. The paintings also feature an “extensive language of signs and symbols” developed by Donwood and Yorke.

The wider series will be presented alongside a Flemish woven tapestry commissioned by the artists in London to celebrate the one-year anniversary of The Smile's debut album.